Second bridge-toll hike takes effect

NEW YORK — Tolls on the George Washington Bridge and the Port Authority's other interstate crossings will rise again Sunday, the second of five increases that will be levied through 2015.

Judy Rife

NEW YORK — Tolls on the George Washington Bridge and the Port Authority's other interstate crossings will rise again Sunday, the second of five increases that will be levied through 2015.

By the time the last increase clicks into place on Dec. 6, 2015, the cash toll for cars will be $15 and the E-ZPass tolls, $12.50 in peak hours and $10.50 in off-peak ones. Prior to the first increase a year ago, the cash toll for cars was $8 and the E-ZPass toll, $8 at peak hours and $6 at off-peak ones.

"We view these increases as unnecessary and unfair," said Robert Sinclair, a spokesman for AAA New York, which still has a lawsuit challenging the tolls pending in federal court.

The increases are lower than what the Port Authority originally proposed for cars, and higher for trucks and buses, and will be phased in over longer periods of time. The new revenue will support $25.1 billion in capital spending over the next decade.

Truck tolls, for example, are jumping at the rate of $2 an axle a year, to bring the cost for the average five-axle 18-wheeler to cross the GWB in peak hours with E-ZPass to $90 in 2015 from $40 last year.

Truckers are also facing as much as a 45 percent increase in tolls on the New York State Thruway, although the widely criticized plan has stalled and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has told the agency to explore all other options. Cuomo took the same position after the public panned his statement that the agency may have to boost tolls as high as $14 from the current $5 to pay for the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

Tolls for buses jumped to $10 from $4 last year and will continue to rise at 75 cents a year until reaching $13 in 2015, but commuter bus companies such as Coach USA/Short Line have not raised fares to compensate.

AAA New York and AAA North Jersey are seeking to check the toll increases as alleged violations of the federal Bridge Act, a law that restricts the use of money raised from interstate crossings to transportation projects. The Port Authority initially said the increases were necessary to fund cost overruns in the $3 billion-plus rebuilding of the World Trade Center, and then backed off that assertion in the wake of the AAA suit.

AAA has also called on the agency to provide a full, public accounting of how toll revenue is used and on Congress to pass new legislation to regulate interstate tolls.

The Port Authority derives all of its income from tolls, rents, fares and fees at its tunnels and bridges, airports, ports and PATH transit system.

judyrife@gmail.com

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